Magazine
All articles
From the basics to the details: 79 articles about great digital products. Newest first – or pick a topic.
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Psychology
Cognitive Load: Why Less Is Often More in Interface Design
Every interface asks for mental effort, but much of it is unnecessary. What cognitive load is, how to spot it and seven practical ways to reduce it. -
Design
Comic Sans: Why the World’s Most Hated Typeface Is Treated Unfairly
Comic Sans is called the most hated typeface in the world, unfairly. Its story shows that the hate is really about how it was misused. -
Accessibility
Why Accessibility Is More Than Contrast and Font Size
Contrast and font size are just the tip of the iceberg. Why real accessibility starts with semantics, keyboard access and clear language, and why it benefits everyone in the end. -
User Experience
Synthetic Users: Can AI Replace Real User Research?
AI-generated users deliver interviews in seconds. But how do they compare to real people? A look at recent studies and at where synthetic users can still help. -
Accessibility
The BFSG in Practice: What Germany’s Accessibility Act Means for Websites and Apps
Since June 2025, Germany’s BFSG also applies to online stores, banking apps, and booking platforms. Who is affected, what’s technically required, and how your team can get started. -
Psychology
Spotting and Avoiding Dark Patterns: Why Interface Tricks Cost You
Fake countdowns, hidden cancellations, cookie banners without a "Reject" button: why dark patterns cost trust, what EU and German law say, and what fair alternatives look like. -
Design
Forms Nobody Abandons: 12 Rules for Better Form UX
Visible labels, well-timed validation, helpful error messages: 12 proven rules for forms, explained step by step using a real-world checkout example. -
Accessibility
Screen Reader Testing: How to Check Your Website with VoiceOver and NVDA
Screen reader users move through a page by headings, landmarks and links. How to turn on VoiceOver and NVDA and test your own website in 20 minutes. -
Design
Design Systems for Small Teams: When They Pay Off and How to Start Small
When a design system pays off for a small team and how to build one in twelve weeks: from a UI inventory and design tokens to your first ten components. -
User Experience
Site Search: Why It Often Fails and How to Improve It
Many site searches only find what is named exactly as in the system. Why search fails so often and how six levers and a look at your search log can fix it. -
Design
Touch Targets: How Big Buttons on a Phone Need to Be
44, 48 or 24? Where the well-known minimum sizes for touch targets come from, why the hit area matters more than the visible size and what is really behind the thumb zone. -
User Experience
Measuring UX: How to Use Success Rate, Time on Task and SUS Properly
More page views are not a success in themselves. Which metrics really measure the quality of a user experience, how to calculate them properly with small samples and which thinking errors to avoid. -
Accessibility
Alt Text That Actually Helps: How to Describe Images for Everyone
Good alt text does not describe what an image shows but what it does in that spot. How to handle decorative, informative, functional and complex images, and which myths you can safely forget. -
Psychology
The Zeigarnik Effect: What’s Really Behind the Popular UX Rule
Unfinished tasks stick in your mind, says a popular UX rule. What research says today, what it means for progress bars, checklists and streaks, and where manipulation begins. -
Design
Designing Dark Mode Right: Colors, Contrast and Common Mistakes
A good dark mode is more than inverted colors. What research says about readability and how to design surfaces, accent colors, contrast and images for dark interfaces. -
Tools
Auto Layout in Figma: Building Components That Grow with Their Content
Auto layout turns rigid mockups into components that respond to their content. How direction, spacing, hug, fill, wrap and grid work, and how to use them to build a button, a card and a list. -
Psychology
The Von Restorff Effect: Why What’s Different Stands Out
What stands out from its surroundings sticks in memory. What Hedwig von Restorff found in 1933 and how to use emphasis in interfaces deliberately and accessibly. -
User Experience
Usability Testing with Five Users: What’s Behind the Rule of Thumb
Five users find 85 percent of usability problems, or so the saying goes. Where the number comes from, what follow-up studies have shown and how to plan test rounds that actually improve your product. -
Tools
The Right UX Tools to Start With: What You Actually Need
To get started in UX design, three or four tools are enough, and almost all of them are free. An honest overview, sorted by task rather than popularity. -
Accessibility
Easy Language or Plain Language: What’s the Difference?
Easy Language and Plain Language sound almost the same, but they serve different people and follow their own rules. Here’s how they differ and when your product needs which. -
Accessibility
Test Your Website with the Keyboard in 15 Minutes
Put the mouse aside and press Tab: this five-round test lets you check focus, order, menus, dialogs and keyboard traps on your website in 15 minutes, without any tools. -
Tools
Figma Basics: Frames, Auto Layout and Components
Frames, auto layout and components are the three building blocks of Figma. Learn step by step how they work together and build your first reusable class card. -
Design
The Forgotten Screens: Empty States, Loading States and Error Pages
Empty lists, loading indicators and error pages often decide whether people keep going or give up. Here is how these states can show the way instead of leaving a void, explained step by step with an invoicing tool. -
Design
Color in the Interface: The Basics for Your First Color Palette
Neutrals, primary color, accent and status colors: how to build your first interface color palette without color theory, so it is easy to understand and has enough contrast. -
Tools
Design Tokens in Figma: Define Colors and Spacing Once with Variables
How small teams define colors, spacing and radii once with Figma variables and use them everywhere: three collections, modes for dark mode, scoping and the path into code. -
Psychology
Trust at First Sight: What People Base Their Judgment of a Website On
People decide in a split second whether a website is trustworthy, and mostly on gut feeling. Which signals shape that judgment and how to design for them honestly. -
User Experience
The UX Process at a Glance: From Problem to Solution
From understanding to measuring: the UX process as a map, with five phases, one running example and the best-known models compared. -
Tools
Sketch vs. Figma in 2026: Which One You Should Choose!
In 2026, Figma is the de facto standard in UX design. When Sketch still makes sense – and why there's no way around Figma for your career. -
Accessibility
WCAG Explained Simply: The Four Principles at a Glance
What the WCAG are, how the guidelines are structured and what perceivable, operable, understandable and robust mean in practice. A clear introduction with everyday examples, no prior knowledge needed. -
User Experience
Measuring UX: Task Success, Time on Task, SUS and Conversion Explained
Task success, time on task, SUS and conversion rate: this guide explains the most important UX metrics with one running example and shows when each one actually helps. -
User Experience
What Are UX Personas and Why Does Every Team Need Them?
Data-driven personas help teams make user-centered decisions – but only if they're created correctly. What personas can do and where their limits lie. -
Design
Spacing and Grids in Interface Design: Whitespace, the 8-Point System and Layout Grids Explained
Why spacing decides whether an interface feels orderly and readable: whitespace, the 8-point system and layout grids explained simply, with before and after examples and a Figma walkthrough. -
User Experience
Onboarding That Sticks: The First Minutes in Your Product
New users don't want to click through tutorials. They want to get something done. Learn how to define the first success in your product and shorten the path to it with seven levers, explained through one running example. -
User Experience
Error Messages That Actually Help: UX Writing for Common Error Cases
What happened, and what now? How good error messages are structured, which tone works, and what ten common error messages look like before and after a rewrite. -
Design
Mobile First and Responsive Design: Making Your Website Work on Every Screen
What responsive design and mobile first mean, how to prioritize content for small screens, set breakpoints and size touch targets properly. A practical introduction built around one running example. -
User Experience
Personas from Real Data: How to Build a Persona Your Team Actually Uses
A persona only helps if it is grounded in real data. This step-by-step guide shows you how to get from support tickets and interviews to a useful persona, avoid common mistakes and tell personas apart from Jobs to be Done. -
User Experience
Heuristic Evaluation Step by Step: The 10 Usability Heuristics Applied to One Example
Jakob Nielsen's ten usability heuristics help you spot common weaknesses in an interface without organizing a test first. This article walks you through the method step by step using an online booking flow. -
User Experience
Flat vs. Deep Hierarchy: Which Structure Is Best?
Fewer clicks or clear categories? Flat vs. deep hierarchy in information architecture – and when each structure is the better choice. -
Design
Screen Typography: Font Size, Line Length and Line Height
What font size, how many characters per line, how much line height? Proven values for on-screen text, where they come from, and how to apply them right away in Figma and CSS. -
User Experience
User Interviews Without Leading Questions: How to Get Honest Answers
Leading questions get you exactly the answers you want to hear. This guide uses plenty of before-and-after examples to show how to prepare, run and analyze user interviews, even without a dedicated researcher on the team. -
Psychology
UX Laws Explained with Examples: Fitts, Hick, Jakob and Miller
Fitts’s Law, Hick’s Law, Jakob’s Law and Miller’s Law explained without prior knowledge, each with an everyday example and a before and after from a ticket app. Plus the typical misconceptions and four questions for your next screen. -
User Experience
Navigation Nobody Gets Lost In: Information Architecture Step by Step
How to build navigation where people find what they’re looking for: step by step with card sorting and tree testing, no prior knowledge needed. -
Psychology
Nudging in UX Design: How to Guide User Behavior
Small nudges, big impact: how nudging guides user behavior in UX design – and how to draw a clear ethical line between nudges and dark patterns. -
User Experience
What Are Microinteractions and How Can You Use Them?
The animated heart, the gentle vibration, the progress bar: how small microinteractions give feedback, provide orientation, and bring products to life. -
User Experience
Common Usability Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
From unclear navigation and long load times to cluttered interfaces: eight common usability mistakes – and how to avoid them. -
User Experience
Minimum Viable Product (MVP): What UX Designers Should Know
Fewer features, but well-thought-out UX: what UX designers should keep in mind when building an MVP so they can learn fast without blowing the first impression. -
User Experience
How to Structure Content the Right Way
From card sorting and sitemaps to iterative testing: a hands-on guide to structuring your content in a user-centered way. -
User Experience
How to Extract Valuable Feedback from Usability Tests
Collecting data is easy – drawing the right conclusions is the real skill. Here are methods for filtering actionable feedback out of your usability tests. -
User Experience
How to Create a Journey Map: A Guide to Your First Mapping
A journey map shows what people do, think and feel on the way to their goal. This guide walks you through your first mapping with a worked example, no prior knowledge needed. -
User Experience
Your First Usability Test: Step by Step with Five Users
One morning, five people and a handful of well-written tasks are enough to find the biggest stumbling blocks on your website. This guide takes you from test goal to first analysis, no prior knowledge needed. -
User Experience
An Introduction to Information Architecture
Like a good restaurant menu: the fundamentals, principles, and process of information architecture – and why it determines findability and SEO. -
User Experience
Card Sorting Basics: Efficient Information Architecture for Beginners
Open or closed card sorting? How to find out how real users group content – and build your navigation around it. -
User Experience
What Does an Information Architect Do?
The invisible architects behind every good navigation: how information architects structure content so users can effortlessly find what they're looking for. -
User Experience
What Does a UX Researcher Do?
The detectives of the digital age: how user researchers use interviews, surveys, and usability tests to gather solid user insights. -
User Experience
UX Writing vs. Copywriting: What's the Difference?
Both work with words, but they pursue different goals: the five biggest differences between UX writing and copywriting. -
User Experience
What Does a UX Writer Do?
Microcopy that guides people through products: what a UX writer does, how the role differs from a copywriter, and which skills it takes. -
Psychology
The Peak-End Rule: Why People Mostly Remember the Peak and the End
People don’t judge an experience by its average, but mostly by its most intense moment and by how it ends. What the research says and how to design the moments that stick. -
User Experience
What Does a UI Designer Do?
Colors, typography, layout, prototypes: what a UI designer actually does all day, which skills matter, and how to get into the profession. -
Design
Designing Buttons Right: Hierarchy, Labels, States and Size
Which button matters most, what should it say, how should it respond and how big does it need to be? Designing buttons and calls to action, explained step by step with one example. -
User Experience
Who Does What in UX? A Detailed Look at the Roles and Their Contributions
UX designer, UI designer, researcher, writer, information architect: why there are so many UX roles and how they work together in the design process. -
Design
Gestalt Principles in Interface Design: Proximity, Similarity and Closure
Why people see some elements as belonging together and others not: proximity, similarity and closure explained clearly, with before and after examples and a settings screen that gets better step by step. -
Design
Visual Hierarchy: How to Guide the Eye Through Your Interface
Size, weight, color, spacing and position decide what people see first on your page. How to use visual hierarchy on purpose, with before-and-after examples and simple tests. -
Design
Wireframe, Mockup, Prototype: What’s the Difference?
Wireframes, mockups and prototypes answer three different questions: what goes where, how does it look, and does it work? Follow one example project to see when you need which, and who should see what. -
Accessibility
Color Blindness in UX Design: Guidelines and Tools
How to design interfaces so that information isn't conveyed by color alone – the basics, guidelines, and tools for color-blind-friendly design. -
Accessibility
Accessibility Testing: Tools and Methods for UX Designers
A crucial step toward making digital products accessible to everyone: automated tools and manual methods for accessibility testing – and what the German Accessibility Strengthening Act means from 2025 on. -
User Experience
How to Easily Use Agile UX in Your Project
Fast user feedback instead of drawn-out usability tests: how Agile UX and the User Feedback Day deliver solid insights in just a few days. -
Psychology
The Barnum Effect: Ego Beats Self-Reflection – and How You Can Use It
Vague, general statements almost everyone agrees with: how the Barnum effect tricks the mind – and how it plays out in UX and conversion optimization. -
Psychology
The Priming Effect – How You Can Influence Users Effectively
Priming is one of the basics of conversion optimization: how previous stimuli unconsciously influence thinking and behavior – from the Florida effect to marketing. -
Design
The 4 Most Frequently Asked Questions About the Hamburger Menu
Do people even recognize the hamburger icon, what are its downsides – and when does hidden navigation actually make sense? -
User Experience
How to Use Expert Evaluation Correctly
Cognitive walkthrough and heuristic evaluation: what expert evaluation can do – and how to use it the right way without replacing real user testing. -
Psychology
Basics of Human Perception: Short-Term Memory
The 7±2 rule and the paradox of choice: why short-term memory determines how much information and how many options an interface can handle. -
User Experience
Lean UX – Trend or Real Improvement?
Not a trend, but a method: how Lean UX brings proven usability tools into agile teams iteratively – and puts the user at the center. -
Psychology
Why Do Visitors Convert into Buyers?
A deeper look into buyer psychology: why people convert – explained through BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model of motivation, ability, and triggers. -
Design
What Is Atomic Design?
How the Atomic Design methodology breaks web projects down into their smallest building blocks and makes collaboration between design and development easier. -
User Experience
What Is Usability?
The seven pillars of usability according to DIN EN ISO 9241 – from suitability for the task to suitability for learning, explained in plain language. -
User Experience
What Is User Experience?
Utility, usability, desirability: what makes up user experience – and why even the best usability can't save a bad overall experience. -
User Experience
What Is UX Design? The Banana Example
UX design in a single picture: why the banana is the perfect example of a well-thought-out user experience – from its ripeness signal to its built-in handle. -
User Experience
What Does a (Good) UX Designer Do?
The UX designer role doesn't even exist in the standards – and yet it's very real. Here's what the job involves and which skills really matter. -
User Experience
What's the Difference Between UX Design and UI Design?
UX and UI often get mixed up. Here's how the two disciplines differ – and why they only work together.